Sick (10 page)

“I’m going to kill him,” he kept whispering. “I’m going to kill him.”

But, really, it was the other way around.

15

Ash’s new quarters weren’t quite as nice as the room he’d woken up in the day before, but they were more than adequate. All the clothes that had been in the other dresser had been moved to his new room, as had the messenger bag that surprisingly still had the money inside.

He had slept with the watch on, not a habit he used to have, but one he was determined to start. It had still been on California time when Hamilton gave it to him, but Pax had told him when he showed Ash to the room that it was an hour later here. Where “here” was, Ash still didn’t know.

It was because of the watch that he skipped dinner. He was in too much of an emotional state, and didn’t want to end up saying something he’d regret later. Pax had brought him a tray of food around eight p.m. and Ash surprised himself by devouring it all.

When morning came, the decision to leave didn’t seem as clear as it had twelve hours before. Yes, the conversation with Hamilton had annoyed him, but there was too much he didn’t know or understand, and it was clear that many of the answers could probably be found right there on the ranch.

Still unsure of what he was going to do, he packed a few extra shirts, some underwear, and socks into the messenger bag. He then left the bag in the room and went in search of breakfast.

The building he was in was a kind of dormitory just down a wide stone pathway from the main building. It was two stories and held maybe twenty rooms, but if anyone else had been staying there, Ash hadn’t heard them. The outside of the building was stone halfway up the first floor, with wooden timbers the rest of the way to the top. It was definitely built to last, but while it had the appearance of having been built decades before, Ash got the sense it was actually recently constructed.

Heading down the path, he could hear birds chirping in the distance, and felt a breeze blowing softly through the tops of the trees. The tranquility of it all was almost overwhelming. It was so at odds with the turmoil going on inside him.

As the trail turned and went up a gentle rise, the main building came into view. It was an impressive structure—old and wooden and huge, with wide, sloped roofs and half a dozen chimneys. It looked like a ski lodge that should have been at the bottom of a hill rather than in a quiet clearing.

There was a workout area off to the left with pull-up bars, sit-up stations, and resistance-training machines. A woman was at one of the machines, using it to work her shoulders. She glanced over at Ash, then quickly looked away as if she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t have.

As Ash neared the main building, he spotted Pax on his hands and knees examining a set of stairs that led up to the wide porch surrounding the structure. When Pax saw him, he got to his feet and brushed off his hands.

“Morning,” he said.

“Good morning,” Ash replied. “I was wondering if there was someplace I could get some breakfast.”

“Sure, sure.” Pax turned to the building. “That third door there, that gets you into a short hallway that’ll take you into the kitchen. You’ll find Bobbi in there. She can whip you up something.”

“Thanks.” Ash glanced at the stairs. “Is it safe?”

“What? Oh, sure. Just be careful on that second step. The backboard’s starting to give a little. I’ll have one of the boys replace it this afternoon.”

Again, Ash hesitated before moving on. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“What kind of business is this ranch in? Can’t believe you make a lot of money off of people like me.”

Pax laughed. “No, that would drive us broke, I think. We have cattle, beef mostly, and a small herd of buffalo.”

“Buffalo?”

“You’d be surprised at the size of the buffalo meat market. But Rachel wants us to keep them for historical sake, let them live out their lives here.”

“So you only make money off the cattle then.”

“When we need to.”

It wasn’t really an answer, but Ash decided not to push and headed into the house.

Bobbi was a tall woman with short red hair who turned out to be an excellent cook. In no time, Ash was sitting at one of the tables in the restaurant-sized kitchen, working his way through a large plate of eggs and sausage.

“Morning, Rachel,” Bobbi said several minutes later.

Ash glanced up. Another woman had entered the kitchen—Rachel, presumably. She was shorter and leaner than Bobbi, and had long silver-streaked blonde hair that was pulled back into a ponytail.

“How about a cup of coffee?” Rachel asked.

“You got it.”

While Bobbi filled a mug, Rachel walked over to Ash’s table.

“Mind if I sit with you?” she asked him.

“Not at all.”

She smiled, took the chair opposite his, then held out her hand. “I’m Rachel Hamilton.”

They shook.

“You’re Matt’s wife?”

She laughed. “Hardly. I’m his sister.”

“Sorry. When Pax told me this place was yours and Matt’s, I just assumed…”

“Don’t be sorry. A lot of people make that same mistake.”

Bobbi came over, set the mug in front of Rachel, then glanced at Ash. “And how’s your breakfast?”

“It’s good. Thank you.”

“If either of you need anything, just holler.” With that, she headed back to the prep table where she’d been cutting up vegetables.

Rachel took a sip of her coffee then said, “How’d you sleep?”

“Fine,” he said. “I appreciate you letting me spend another night here.”

“We’ve got the beds. Someone might as well use them.”

“You do have a lot of space, but I’ve only seen a handful of people.”

“It’s an ebb-and-flow kind of thing around here. Sometimes the ranch is packed, and sometimes it feels like just Matt and me.”

“Pax tells me that this is a cattle ranch.”

She took another sip, then shrugged. “Yeah, we have cattle.”

Like Pax, she seemed hesitant to get into the business of the ranch.

“I hear you told Matt you’re intending to leave us this morning,” she said as he put a piece of sausage in his mouth.

He shrugged.

“I’m sure you have a lot of things to do,” she went on. “Starting with trying to find out what happened to your family. If I were you, it would be the first thing I’d want to do.” She paused. “But before you go, there are a few things you need to know.”

“What?” he said.

“You finish your breakfast first, then we can talk.”

He swallowed the sausage, then pushed his plate away. “I’m finished now.”

• • •

The room she led him to was on the second floor near Matt’s office. It was a conference room decorated to keep with the mountain-lodge feel of the place—big pine table, wooden handcrafted chairs, and a fireplace at the far end. There was also a large television hanging on the wall that was currently off.

Ash hadn’t even sat down yet when the door opened again, and Matt and Pax walked in.

“Morning, Captain,” Matt said. “Trust you slept well.”

“I did. Thank you.”

Pax gave Ash a nod.

“Where’s Billy?” Matt asked.

Pax seemed to take this as his cue. He picked up the phone on a cabinet under the TV and punched in a number.

“Why don’t we sit?” Rachel suggested.

While Matt went around to the other side of the table, Rachel took the chair next to the one Ash sat in.

“So what’s this all about?” Ash asked.

Before anyone could answer, the door opened and Billy rushed in.

“Sorry,” he said. He made his way around to sit with Matt, and placed the notebook he was carrying on the table.

Pax hung up the phone the moment Billy entered, and took the chair next to Rachel.

Matt looked around at everyone, then focused his attention on Ash. “I’ll come right to it. We think it would be a mistake for you to leave right now.”

“If I want to leave, I’ll leave,” Ash said, suddenly wary. “You already said you wouldn’t try to stop me.”

“And we won’t,” Matt told him. “But I’m hoping what we have to say will convince you to stay.”

When he didn’t elaborate, Ash asked, “So what
is
it you have to say?”

Matt considered him for a moment before saying, “What happened to the families at Barker Flats didn’t occur simply by chance.”

“Of course it didn’t,” Ash said. “It was an attack. Some terrorist organization trying to stir up fear.”

Matt hesitated, then stood up. He began walking toward the far end of the room. “How well did you know your neighbors?”

“My neighbors? Not well. We’d just transferred in.”

Matt stopped near the center of the table. “Hadn’t everyone just transferred in?”

“Well, yes. The base had been closed for a while, and we were there to get it up and running again.”

Matt touched a finger to the table. Instantly, a wooden flap rose and disappeared into the surface edgewise, revealing a control panel underneath.

“You’re going to want to turn around,” Matt said. He hit a button and the TV came to life.

Ash shifted his chair so he could see the screen. Rachel and Pax did the same. The image remained black for a moment, then a picture of a family cut in.

“Do you recognize them?” Matt asked.

“That’s Manny…Captain Diaz and his wife. Carol, I think. I don’t remember their kids’ names.”

“They lived next to you, didn’t they?”

“Yes.”

As Ash stared at the picture, he remembered the scream he’d heard that night while he and Brandon were being led away. It was Carol, wasn’t it? And now, if what Matt told him was true, Carol and Manny and their kids were all dead.

The picture changed to one of a man and woman.

“Lieutenant Cross and his wife,” Ash said without prompting. The Crosses lived on the other side of them.

Another picture, a couple and a teenage boy.

“The Parsons, I believe.” He looked at Matt. “What’s the point of all this?”

Matt nodded at the screen. More pictures came up. This time there was no pause for Ash to identify them, but he recognized the faces of many of those he’d seen around the base.

The last image was a collage of all the photos.

“These are the sixteen families that you lived with, the ones that were exposed to the same disease as you and your family. They all have something very important in common.”

“You’ve already told me they’re dead.”

“There’s something else.”

The picture of the Diaz family replaced the collage.

“Manny Diaz,” Matt said. “His father died when he was seventeen, and his mother a month after he received his commission. He was an only child. Carol Diaz, maiden name Yeager. Mother died when she was eleven, father two years later. She was an only child.”

The picture of the Diaz family was replaced by one showing the Crosses.

“Martin Cross. Parents killed in a car accident when he was a freshman in college. He was an only child. Emily Cross, maiden name Vernon. Adopted by an older couple, both of whom died of natural causes within one year of each other while Emily was in high school. She was their only child.”

Matt continued to go through the pictures, telling the basically same story every time. The final picture was one that hadn’t been shown before.

“Daniel Ash. Parents died in an auto accident when he was twenty. Not an only child, but his brother Jeff sustained brain damage in the accident and lives in a nursing home. Ellen Ash, maiden name Walker. Mother died of cancer when she was—”

“Stop,” Ash whispered. “Please.”

The screen went black, and the room fell quiet.

After a few moments, Rachel put a hand on Ash’s arm. “We know this isn’t easy. But we needed to show you the truth.”

“The truth of what?” he asked, shaking her off. “That everyone I used to live around lost their parents? It happens. It’s probably not as unusual as it sounds.”

“It’s not just the parents,” Matt said, still at the center of the table. He gestured at the screen. “None of your former neighbors had any close relatives at all. They were isolated.”

Ash gritted his teeth. “I have someone.”

“You do,” Rachel said. “But I think you understand the point Matt is getting at.”

He shot her a look, then let out a breath as his gaze fell to the table. “Okay. Fine. So we were all isolated. So what?”

“So that makes all of you the perfect test subjects,” Matt said.

“Test subjects?”

“If any of you died, it would be fairly easy to cover that up, don’t you think?”

“Wait. Are you trying to tell me what happened at Barker Flats was done to us on purpose
as a test?
”